WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Turning Down the Radio When You're Lost 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.600 Hey, everybody, get this the Stuff You Should Know book 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:07.160 that's coming out this fall, The Incomplete Compendium of mostly 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.559 Interesting Things. It has a cover. Now, it's been born, 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:14.200 it's arrived, and we're showing it off on all of 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:19.400 our social channels. You can go over to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.319 all those jams and check out our new cover down. 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.520 So go check it out. It's free to check out. 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:34.080 So go, Hey, you welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh. 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.400 There's Chuck. There's Jerry. This is Short Stuff. I'm Josh. 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:42.280 Jerry's over there, there's Chuck. Let's go car radios killers. 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.320 I know this is so I have to say this 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.279 article was like pretty great. It's, um, it's a how 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.600 stuff works article and it's why do we turn down 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.000 the radio when we're lost? And it was like it's 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.200 got that kind of classic how stuff work sheen where 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.280 it's like, well, here's the simple answer, but let me 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:03.880 find all this other stuff that has to do with 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.720 this that makes it that much more interesting, you know. Yeah, 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.399 it's also kind of funny to look back to the 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.000 nineteen thirties and realize that their cell phone was the 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.080 car radio and they were just as worried that it 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.000 was going to kill people driving. Yes, right, So like 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.640 there's this question like, are we every time we're worried 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.199 about some new technologies the same thing as when people 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.760 before us worried about technology that proved to be totally safe, 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.440 or will we eventually hit some some technology that were like, oh, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:36.880 actually no, this one doesn't qualify. It's actually way worse 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.399 than everything else. And will it be radios again, maybe 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.200 they'll have another shot at being dangerous. Who knows that's right. Well, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.360 in the early thirties they were so worried about it. 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.880 They some states find people who put cars in their radios. 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:55.720 And it wasn't until about eight years after nineteen thirty 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.920 nine years that they actually did some real studies the 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.240 Princeton Radio Research Project. They said, you know what, it's 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.880 not a big deal to listen to a radio in 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:07.840 your car. If anyone cares what we think, then that 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.200 sounds like our current times, where it's like this is dangerous, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.200 this is dangerous, we should come up with some laws 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.080 to protect ourselves against this. And then finally we're like, oh, 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.720 let's actually study it and find out a little bit. 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:23.399 And then now it's it's actually fine. So, Um, so 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.760 the radios were deemed safe, right, Uh, they were deemed 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.799 to not play a role in car accidents specifically. But 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:34.840 the question is this so? So at some point the 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.640 Society of Automotive Engineers basically said, hey, we've got this 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.119 figured out. As long as you're not distracted for more 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.440 than fifteen seconds while you're driving, you're gonna be just fine. 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.720 Which is that's just totally untrue, right of course, everybody, 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.840 every anyone knows that these days, um that that fifteen 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.040 seconds is like a death sentence basically in a car. 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.200 But did they did they sign off on radios under 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:08.000 that fifteen second rule? I don't know. I think they 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.040 have now whittled that down to two seconds because they 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.400 realized that driving three football fields without paying attention is 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:20.920 actually quite dangerous, no matter what you're listening to, right exactly, So, 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.160 I guess a car drives at fifty five miles an hour, 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.200 drives about a football field every five seconds, So, yeah, 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.480 fifteen seconds, you can get into a lot of trouble 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.320 even at fifty five Yeah too, I mean two seconds, 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.400 that seems about right, because even though you shouldn't be 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:42.120 distracted at all, everyone is I mean, there are things 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.400 going on that you can't help but be distracted by sometimes. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.880 Did you ever take any of those like UM insurance 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.480 reduction slash d U y schools? No classes? Did you ever? 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.480 You didn't do that? I went to that, never for 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.360 do UI or anything like that. But UM, like you 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.280 could get like a discount on your insurance if you 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.320 were like a teenage driver and you went to take 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.120 one of these safe driving classes. But inevitably the instructor 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.200 would just start shelling out like um stories about people 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.120 doing stupid stuff while they're driving. And one that always 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:16.320 stuck with me was somebody eating cereal while they're driving. 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:18.640 And for years I just thought that was the most 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.560 bonkers thing, And then I finally saw it with my 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.240 own two eyes, somebody else on the road eating cereal 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.080 while driving down the highway during a morning commute. And 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.760 it is as bonkers as you would think. It wasn't 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.800 any less bonkers seeing it, I guess because there's a 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.680 liquid involved, and two hand makes it different than eating 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.080 something else. Well, I can drive pretty well with my knees, 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:42.760 are you. I don't know if I would eat clam chowder? 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.120 Can you really? I can kind of, but then I'm 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.359 also like I can freak myself out and be like 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:51.400 this is really really dangerous. Well, in my car now 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:57.280 has one of those uh sort of driving assistance where 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.440 you don't have to hold the steering wheel, that is, 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.599 you don't even need meat. It's super freaky and makes 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:08.719 me feel a little bit like unsafe. Right. Yeah, I 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.600 have that too, where it's like you start to drift 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.960 a little bit and then the car just goes no, no, 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.200 and like pushes you back into your lane down one. 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:20.400 It's a little creepy. It feels like your car is possessed, yeah, basically, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.839 or it's like a little a little bossy for my taste. 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:26.840 You don't have to use that stuff. You can turn 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.240 that stuff off. I don't know if you can in 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.080 the one I have, but but maybe so. Um So, 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.960 here's the thing. Distracted driving is an actual thing. But 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.880 radio's got signed off on now. They realize that if 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.560 you are driving down the road just listening to the radio, 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.560 not like fiddling with it or messing you know, finding 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:48.839 a like the right track on your phone or connecting 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.080 your phone via Bluetooth to your media center or whatever 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.040 in your car. But if you're just listening to music, 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.359 it actually helps you focus more. So not only is 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.040 the radio not in and of itself or listening in 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.120 the music not in and of itself, um, distracting, it 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.480 actually helps you focus and probably drive better. So baring 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.760 all that in mind, Chuck, doesn't it make sense? That 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.920 is the most bizarre thing you could possibly do when 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.159 you're lost and you realize you're lost or you're really 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.240 trying to concentrate on driving, that you would turn the 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.200 radio down. It doesn't make any sense if you think 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.919 about it on its face. What it does make is 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:31.880 a great teaser for part two right after that, Man, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.040 you know me so well. Well, now we're on the 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.560 road driving in your truck. Want to learn a thing 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.760 or two from Josh Man, Chuck. It's stuff you should know, 0:06:45.000 --> 0:07:02.000 all right, all right, So if we're talking we need 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.960 What we're really talking about is multitasking, and it's pretty 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.920 interesting how the human brain works. We've talked about the 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.320 brain add nauseum on the show, but just as a refresher, 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:18.640 you've got the cerebrum. If someone subscribed as cerebral, that 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:23.280 means they have uh pretty tight higher cognitive functioning. Going on, 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:28.480 talking about emotion, talking about language, Sure, what's next? What 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:34.560 about the sarah, the cerebellum that's right, that controls muscle movement, balance, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.520 stuff like that. And then you've got the dumb old 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.520 brain stem, which just you know, like if you want 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.160 to breathe and blink your eyes and stuff like that 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.600 and get messages between the spinal cord and the other 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.000 two parts of the brain, then your brain stem is 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.560 gonna step up right. So um, So, all these parts 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.000 of the brain are kind of working in conjunction to 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.800 help you do things like drive or walk around or 0:07:57.880 --> 0:07:59.520 chew gum or whatever. All of them are going to 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.800 play a role either by themselves are in conjunction, more 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.360 likely in conjunction with the others. And the way that 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.960 you do go through life and not just you, Chuck 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.240 or you dear listener, but everybody, every human goes through 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:15.840 life taking in all of the information available to us 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:19.280 through our senses. Are five basic senses, right, which is 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:25.320 um uh, touch, hearing, smell, vision, taste, and then the 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.280 sixth one are morphic field sense that's right, seeing dead people, 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.040 that's right exactly, or knowing when somebody is staring at 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.480 the back of your head. So when you when you 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.200 get all of this information, your brain is processing it. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.240 It's um encoding everything, and it's basically while it's encoding 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.120 it because it's getting so much different stuff. And I 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:46.079 know we've talked about there's plenty of times before in 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.240 past episodes, but I just still to this day find 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.880 it fascinating. But the brain is basically saying this is important, 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.360 This isn't important. Um, this I can throw away. This 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.560 I need to put more focus on. And apparently the 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.240 brain is capable of carrying on at least two tasks 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:09.440 virtually simultaneously, but one is considered more important than the other. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.840 So you've got your primary task and your secondary task, 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.720 that's right, and switching back and forth between these. Your 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.920 brain is really good at it. It's called attention switching, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.520 but it is actually switching, and it does take time. 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.920 It's not it doesn't take long, but it can add up. 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.640 And Uh, if you think that you're something, you know, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:35.240 people like to brag about their multitasking abilities. Uh, you're 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.720 not really multitasking though you think you are. But what 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.400 you're really doing is just doing a lot of things 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:47.000 more poorly than you would be doing right exactly, which 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.840 is surprising because multitaskers are such like type A go 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.640 getters to begin with, that you would think if you 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.160 explain to them, like, hey, you're actually doing way worse 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.240 that each of these different things than you would be 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.640 if you just did one at a time and complete 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.240 each task, that they would take up that mantel. But 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.640 I still suspect that they wouldn't, you know. Yeah, I 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.000 mean anything over too is a problem for the brain 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.600 such that it's not like the brains like, all right, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:12.719 I'll do all three of these at once, but it's 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.439 gonna really I'm gonna struggle. Your brain literally says no, sorry, 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.400 that third thing is in line now behind these other 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.480 two things, and they're actually in line as well. Or 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:24.920 the brain might even just toss that third one out. 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:27.240 But yeah, there's got to be a primary one, there's 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.920 got to be a secondary one, and maybe if it's 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.000 in a good mood, your brain will take on the 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.920 third one. But when it switches between these things, because 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:37.960 that's the thing. If you have two things that you're 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.760 doing and you can't do them actually in parallel, what 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.040 that means then is that your brain has to switch 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.480 between them right as they kind of compete for one another, 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.600 for your brain's resources with one another. And when it 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:52.960 does that, all sorts of terrible things happen. Because it's 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:58.120 not an instantaneous switch. There's a very slight delay, and 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:02.920 in the that slight delay, you can lose attention, lose concentration, 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.400 our response time is eaten up. There's a whole bunch 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.079 of things that kind of go south, where if we 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.200 were just focusing on one thing at that moment, we 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:14.959 would be doing much better at it, and we're doing 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.360 two things instead, and we're doing both things more poorly. 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:22.400 That's right, because if you're multitasking, your error rate increases 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.920 increases by much as and like we said, you're not 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.480 speeding up anyway. If you're multitasking, it's doubling the amount 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.040 of time it would take to do each of those 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.760 things if you were just doing those things, right, So 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:37.880 you think you're saving time and you're not. No, So 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.680 like it's you just said, a chuck, you're doubling the 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.400 amount of time it actually takes. Multitasking doesn't take less time, 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.160 it doubles the amount of time, which is mind boggling, 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.160 ironically enough, Yeah, and you probably don't even realize this. 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.600 If you think you're a good multitasker, the small errors 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.160 you make, and it could be dumb little things like 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.360 you have to go back and retype a line of 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.319 an email that you would have typed it correctly the 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:04.880 first time it had you been only doing that, or 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.800 zoning out on someone and saying, I'm sorry, will you 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.959 repeat that? Because I was doing something else. You're you're 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.640 literally your brain is not able to right exactly. So 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.959 it makes sense then that if you are suddenly you saidden, 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.800 you're driving along, you suddenly realize you don't know the way, 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:24.280 or maybe you're coming up on a street that you 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:26.240 need to turn on, and and these are this is 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.040 not familiar area too, and you really need to concentrate. 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.520 You would turn down the radio to to remove a 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.440 distraction from your brain so that your brain can focus 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.920 more clearly on finding this turn, or taking in this 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.320 other sensory information, or making these decisions that it needs 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:44.600 to make to get you where you're going, which makes 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.839 a lot of sense if you think about it. That's right, 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:48.959 And I'm not sure the science behind it, but I'm 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:53.160 sure some people are a little more um sincerely stimulated 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.560 than others by different sences and I'm one of those 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.680 that sound can really get to me if I have 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.440 I've got to turn that radio down if I'm lost, 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.040 or I'll go crazy or the worst thing in planet 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:11.800 Earth to me is having two music's playing at once. Yeah, 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.720 that's terrible. Like if you have your volume on on 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.680 your computer and you have a tab that's playing music, 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:19.720 and you open another tab and it starts playing, it's 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:24.600 just just utter chaos. Can't do it. Nope, I'm with you, Chuck. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.679 You got anything else about turning down the radio when 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.160 you're lost? Turn it down. People, do one thing at 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:32.280 a time. You'll get there quicker and it will be better. 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.360 There you go. So that means, since Chuck summarized everything 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:41.959 so beautifully, that short stuff is out. Stuff you should 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.360 Know is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.600 For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.480 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.